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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416874">Food of the Ages</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper'>donutsweeper</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baking, Comfort Food, Fluff, Found Family, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:40:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416874</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If Nicky was going to try to bake baklava for Andy, he was make sure he did it <i>right.</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache &amp; Booker | Sebastien le Livre &amp; Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani &amp; Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Food of the Ages</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/gifts">flowersforgraves</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The problem was the entire project had to be undertaken without Andy becoming aware of it. Considering there were huge swaths of time they were apart it shouldn't have been an issue, but when he'd first considered the idea he just hadn't realized exactly just how complicated the endeavor he'd undertaken truly was.</p><p>Who could have guessed it would take over six months to learn how to roll the dough out properly? (Joe, that's who. And he laughed so hard at a few of Nicky's earliest attempts that he fell off his chair.) To be fair, when Nicky first saw what the result was supposed to be, he thought someone might be trying to have a joke at his expense; how was it possible to make the dough thin enough you could read a newspaper through it but manage to prevent it from tearing? He might have wondered if magic was involved, if he even remotely believed in such a thing. But, somewhere around his seven hundredth (or possibly thousandth, who was counting) attempt he had something close. </p><p>Of course that was only a small aspect of the recipe, though. </p><p>He consulted four master bakers and eleven different experts—otherwise known as grandmothers renowned for their baking and it was to the surprise of no one whatsoever that the master bakers' offerings, while delicious, paled in comparison to anything the grandmothers baked—from five different countries on filling options before settling for the pistachio (crushed, not chopped, he wasn't sure why, but it did make a difference) based one commonly found in Gaziantep. He altered the spices they favored slightly to make it more like what he had in mind, and, after more testing, decided that clarified butter worked best and that the kind sold in Urfa had the lightest flavor. </p><p>It took another month of experimenting with different honeys and comparing how they fared versus sugar syrups to finalize the recipe. After the eighth 'no, I promise this isn't the same, it just appears that way' pan that Nicky shoved in Booker's face for taste testing Booker might have threatened to gut him if he didn't stop including him in his cooking experiments, but he never followed through on the promised violence and his advice regarding the superiority of the lemon blossom honey from Madrid was spot on and (after a few more experimental batches) Nicky had to agree that it truly did turn out the best result.</p><p>The look on Andy's face when he presented her with a carefully wrapped piece of homemade baklava tailored just to her tastes? The way she closed her eyes, savoring each bite? It made all his hard work worth it.</p>
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